Determining OT by production rate

**ProfessionalLocator** · November 14th, 2010, 07:11 PM

Determining OT by production rate.

One of the accepted ways of authorizing OT is by the number of tickets the locator is expected to do while on OT. The accepted belief is that becasue they are being paid at time and a half they must only do tickets that can be quickly completed or OT is not justified for that work. Even though this seems reasonable the logic is flawed and often counter productive.

First problem is that the manager is looking at that days production as that day only, failing to take into account that the entire 7 day pay period. This tunnel vision insists that unless X number of tickets can be completed an hour, often at a rate greater than during the regular work week, they cannot authorize OT. The reality is that since all of this is on a 7 day pay period, not a daily pay period, there is no negative impact during OT of doing tickets that take a greater amount of time to perform.

The practice of considering the amount of tickets performed hourly when on OT is purely arbitrary and no logic supports it for most cases.

The reality is that the practice actually can increase the number of man-hours paid to the locator for that 7 day pay period, the practice can often be counter productive.

It has become preferred to do the long tickets during strait time and then save up the tickets that will likely take a shorter time to do on OT. How it becomes counter productive is that the day of the week some tickets are performed affects the hourly production rate.

In the case where the long tickets are done on Friday then the short tickets must be done on Saturday. These short tickets tend to be single addresses for things like decks, landscaping in part of the yard, etc. Performing the short tickets on a Saturday puts the locator and the residents in the same place at the same time. Now the residents are interrupting the locator in their markings and slowing the job. These jobs are done faster during the regular work week when the parents are at work and the kids in school and cannot get in the locators' way.

Equally some of those long tickets are better perfomred on a Saturday. For example tickets in a constructiona area where on the weekend there is less, or no, construction work being done that will slow down the locator.

There are exceptions of course like optionaly working OT to get ahead on tickets that are not due to awhile.

I have to say that the general practice of restricting OT work to only tickets that can be quickly performed is a generally bad practice. At a previous employer I was told that unless I could guarantee working at one and a half times my regular production rate do not come in on the weekend.

**sprayandpray** · November 14th, 2010, 10:19 PM

The USIC policy/practice of requiring more production on week-end work was that when they reported their numbers for Friday, this figure include the week-end work also. Their main concern is that the figures-estimates given on Friday are lower, not higher, than what actually gets accomplished. Therefore, do projects on Friday and single address tickets on the week-end and Mgmt is happy. Of course, the same amount of work gets done over a 7 day period no matter the order in which it's completed.

**FreedMan** · November 15th, 2010, 06:42 AM

Originally Posted by ProfessionalLocator

In the case where the long tickets are done on Friday then the short tickets must be done on Saturday. These short tickets tend to be single addresses for things like decks, landscaping in part of the yard, etc. Performing the short tickets on a Saturday puts the locator and the residents in the same place at the same time. Now the residents are interrupting the locator in their markings and slowing the job. These jobs are done faster during the regular work week when the parents are at work and the kids in school and cannot get in the locators' way.

Equally some of those long tickets are better perfomred on a Saturday. For example tickets in a constructiona area where on the weekend there is less, or no, construction work being done that will slow down the locator.

Got to agree with you on that one ProLo. What you describe is exactly the way I prefer to work when weekend / OT is required. So many managers either never got the extensive experience needed to truly understand this profession or are simply too spineless to raise objections to such counter-productive policies to their superiors.

**ProfessionalLocator** · November 15th, 2010, 07:22 PM

Originally Posted by sprayandpray

The USIC policy/practice of requiring more production on week-end work was that when they reported their numbers for Friday, this figure include the week-end work also. Their main concern is that the figures-estimates given on Friday are lower, not higher, than what actually gets accomplished. Therefore, do projects on Friday and single address tickets on the week-end and Mgmt is happy. Of course, the same amount of work gets done over a 7 day period no matter the order in which it's completed.

There is a time to forget the estimate and deal with he results instead. The idea of using estimates in this was is fatally flawed, counter productive.

**Wingfoot** · November 16th, 2010, 06:20 AM

Hey Pro - WTF? You post on Sunday about OT production rates and Monday USIC enacts an overtime freeze that will now last for many, many months! Coincidence or KARMA?

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**sprayandpray** · November 16th, 2010, 06:40 AM

Not down here!

**Wingfoot** · November 16th, 2010, 07:07 AM

Originally Posted by sprayandpray

Originally Posted by Wingfoot

Hey Pro - WTF? You post on Sunday about OT production rates and Monday USIC enacts an overtime freeze that will now last for many, many months! Coincidence or KARMA?

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Not down here!

Hey spray - My bad....... I should have said the OT freeze was in my part of the world. My post was too general in it's scope. I am guilty of premature evaluation!

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**ProfessionalLocator** · November 16th, 2010, 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by Wingfoot

Hey spray - My bad....... I should have said the OT freeze was in my part of the world. My post was too general in it's scope. I am guilty of premature evaluation!

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Like I said, Utiliquest clone. Utiliquest is famous for OT freezes, even during heavy Summer workload.

Whatever firm does this it does not last long. The locators share their complaint with the excavators. The excavators show up at the monthly Call Before You Dig committee meetings and there complain not about the locate firm but that the utility company is not marking tickets as they should. The utility company client sees this as the locate firm they hired refusing to comply with the contract requirements to get the tickets marked. They lean on the locate firm and the freeze is lifted.

Sometimes OT gets out of hand and needs to be reined in. But a blanket order not to permit any OT is a very bad idea.

I remember one such freeze. The foreman called a locator and asked why they were not at work, that they were awol and could lose their job. The locator replied that they had been given a written order that they were not to work more than 40 hours a week. Being on-call he had hit his 40 hours Wednesday afternoon, and obediently left work and went home like any good employee should. I just can't remember that locator's name, was in another group.